Monthly Archives: October 2023

Reality TV Counts As Learning

Posted on by
Reply

This has been a tough week for me. A lot was happening, both professionally and personally, and unfortunately, it was not all good. Tackling a really cool new way to show my learning just wasn’t a priority. However, I could sit down in the evenings and watch some shows on interior design–my favourite. I think these types of shows are great ways to become inspired and to help identify your own style, often by learning what you don’t like.

My all-time favourite show is The Block; I watch the one based in Australia. I watched this in university, and then when I was in Bali–because it’s so close to Australia, I would see advertisements for it. When I got home, I made it my mission to find and start watching it again. I found it on Tubi; however, there were only two older seasons.

Here is the trailer for season 16, which I haven’t seen but would love to! What I like about this show is that most couples who compete aren’t professionals, and so you get to see them struggle through renovations and designing–much like I do. They are also always tasked with unique design challenges, which I love because I see more styles. The show is also cheesy and has some drama–can it get any better!?

In comparison, I have watched Dream Home Makeover on Netflix, and while it’s still entertaining, I find it a bit boring because it’s always the same style over and over. Plus, there are never any complete fails/flops because they are professionals. Check out the trailer below.

Another fun show that I love–and am now realizing I really love seeing everyday people tackle design is Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr, who is hilarious. Again, because this is an interior design competition, you get to see lots of different styles being tried out, some successful and others not so much. This one can also be found on Netflix.

While I didn’t make any progress on my actual dining room this week, I am feeling a little more refreshed and inspired to continue working on it.

Do you have a favourite interior design show?

Can’t Catch Me

Posted on by
2

I don’t recall having any cyber safety or digital citizenship education in elementary or high school. I attended a K-12 school with around 100 students total, and at times, I think there was this idea that we were good country kids and the internet was only a problem in the cities. This was very naive because kids will be kids regardless of where they live.

The school division was also slow at regulating and restricting access to material. For example, emails in my day were all @hotmail.com. Unfortunately, if you didn’t know how to spell ‘mail’…well, you can see how that might be problematic, especially if those sorts of websites weren’t blocked. We also all participated in an online chat room that included people from all over the world–many of whom I’m sure were not honest about their identities. It honestly shocks me that teachers didn’t know we were using this platform and that the school division wasn’t blocking chat rooms either. Here’s an article that outlines why chat rooms can be so dangerous.

It was when I was in university, and specifically in my education classes, that the concept of cyber safety and especially digital citizenship became very important. Professors used a lot of scare tactics:

  • If you have a picture of yourself holding a drink, you will get fired
  • You can not have any images of yourself in a bathing suit, or again, you’ll be fired
  • Anything you have ever liked, commented on, or shared could get you fired
  • Anyone who is considering hiring you will look at your social media and determine whether or not they want to hire you

The giph below sums up my experience, and if you have ever watched Mean Girls, you totally get this.

While some of these scare tactics are true, not all exist in the extremes that they were presented to us as undergrads. While this approach certainly made me take a hard look at the content I had posted online, it has also made me very conservative when it comes to my online presence–I essentially don’t have one. I will post pictures occasionally for family to see, but I don’t like, share, or comment on content that in any way may be perceived as controversial.

Ordering From Wayfair: Hit Or Miss?

Posted on by
2

Next up in designing my dining room was choosing a rug for the space. As part of my learning this week, I made a video using screen recordings (my first time doing that) and then turned it into a video using iMovie (my first time using this program as well), followed by turning that into a YouTube video.

I’ll post the video I made and then discuss my experience with the tech as well as my thoughts on the rug I chose.

So, I wanted to show you this week how I went about choosing an area rug. Everything I checked out was on my iPad, so I downloaded the app called Record It. I found it very easy to use.

Once you download the app, you press the start button to begin recording.

A little pop-up appears and you choose the “Start Broadcast” and turn your mic on or off to begin the recording. It does a count down for you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you are done your recording you can edit it in app, I chose not to. You can then share your project to your camera roll, other apps, or YouTube.

I downloaded the video to my camera roll and then moved it over to iMovie to begin editing. I found this to be a very easy program to use. I trimmed out the bits that weren’t needed and then added my voice to it–nothing fancy. It’s not a great video; certainly not something that I would watch myself if I were looking for a resource to find an area rug. However, I was successful in learning how to use a few new programs.

So, in case you didn’t watch the whole video. Here are the places I went to in order to research and buy my area rug:

I ordered a smaller area rug from Wayfair about 7 years ago, along with a cat stand and both have held up really well, so I figured I would try ordering from there again. Shipping was fast–although it needed to be sent to a physical address; thanks again to my mother-in-law for accepting all my packages at her office! The rug was delivered quickly and was wrapped well. I unrolled it and then placed it in my dining room. The corners and one end didn’t really want to lay flat so I bought some ‘carpet tape‘ from Amazon to help it stick down. The product was easy to use, and the corners are now lying flat.

Here’s a visual of the rug before I put the tape down.

I love how this rug works in the space. My husband initially thought it was a little ‘busy’ but once the chairs were tucked in they took away from the design a bit and he felt better about it–or just wasn’t brave enough to say otherwise.

What do you think? Have you ever ordered from Wayfair before? What was your experience?

Revolutionizing Human Relationships

Posted on by
5

I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere. We had dial-up internet, and I didn’t get a cell phone until I was 15–and that cell phone was a ‘pay as you go’ thing, so I had to be very careful about how many text messages I sent as each one cost me. The most exciting thing on my phone was the game ‘snake’; if I was really feeling wild, I could pay for a cool new ringtone. Man, have things changed quickly.

Old mobile phones from past to present on white background.

In Michael Wesch’s video, “An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube,” he says, “When media changes, human relations change.” I clearly remember how much my world changed when I gained access to a cell phone or could use MSN messenger to talk to my friends. My whole world opened up, and I could communicate with people outside of those I saw at school. My family also didn’t always know who I was talking to now because they didn’t have to call my home phone–ah, privacy, finally!!

As an educator, I have had mixed feelings about teenagers or children’s access to the digital world. I’ve been the center of nasty jokes and unflattering pictures being sent to a student body on more than one occasion. I’ve had to talk to parents about the adult material their child is caught consuming or partaking in during school hours. I have had to draft emails that warn parents about the possibility that their child may attempt to eat Tide Pods or watch a MoMo video and be encouraged to unalive themselves. I have discussed why only getting 3 hours of sleep at night is unhealthy and not conducive to learning.

I’ve also seen the culture of participation that our new digital world perpetuates be used in amazing ways, such as the viral ALS ice bucket challenge or even the perhaps controversial use of platforms such as GoFundMe. There are also opportunities for people to participate in funding businesses that they believe in on Kickstarter. These are examples of the new ways people can participate in a digital world meaningfully.

When I see statistics like these from the article “Teens Social Media and Technology,” my concerns seem validated. How can almost half of teens say they use the internet ‘almost constantly,’ yet 55% feel they are using social media about the right amount? I realize internet use isn’t always social media, but these numbers still staggered me.

As educators, we are responsible for teaching our students how to use technology appropriately, especially about setting healthy boundaries for ourselves. One thing I did a couple of years ago that spoke volumes to my students was show them the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma. If you haven’t seen it before, I highly recommend it. Check out the trailer for it below.

Have you seen this documentary before? What did you think? Would it be something you show to students?

 

I Did The Dang Thing, Now What?

Posted on by
7

Alright, for those of you who played along…please know that while I appreciate your input, I dismissed it and went with the one other person who also voted for a grey wall. Indeed, it was unfair of me to even ask because, if you remember, my husband only likes brown–and red, so blue and green didn’t stand a chance.

Once I had the wall painted, I absolutely had to put something on it. And thus began my journey of creating a gallery wall.

Simple posters gallery hanging on the wall in bright living room

First, I watched the video below and really disliked it because the gallery wall he was showing was nowhere near my aesthetic, and I couldn’t get past the visual to listen to the message.

I ditched the videos and checked out what Crate&Barrel had to tell me about creating a gallery wall. I found this website to be a lot more helpful because the artwork in the pictures matched closer to my style, and it used clear layout ideas that I could refer back to quickly and easily.

Videos are excellent if you are trying to see how to hang the pictures themselves, but as far as learning about the design style, I much preferred reading about what I might do.

I also checked out Donna Lott’s Photo Gallery Wall Pinterest board. I have no idea who Donna is, but thanks for putting in the hard work of culminating a plethora of ideas! I really enjoy Pinterest as a way to see and save ideas that have piqued my interest quickly. I can tuck them away and delve deeper if I want–I think this is similar to the Save to Pocket Chrome extension, and I attempted to use this extension this week; however, I use my work computer and can’t seem to get it to work. I’m wondering if my school division maybe blocks it.

Anyway, here is the grand reveal! In the picture, there looks to be a green undertone, but this is not the case. I used paint from Sherwin Williams and got my pictures from Mixtiles. Mixtiles was fantastic because it had many examples of gallery wall layouts, and I just peeled off a sticker on the back and slapped them on my wall! I chose this option in the Bold style. Once I get my wedding and honeymoon pictures organized, I’ll pop some of these off the wall and add new ones, easy peasy!

I used Mixtiles because it was easy, but what have you used for displaying pictures?

Let There Be Light

Posted on by
Reply

Alright, so this week, we were tasked with using a new piece of technology to document our learning journey. I’m not going to lie; this was a struggle. I felt like I was just getting the hang of blogging itself, and then there was a new challenge!

I used a couple of different things to create my video, mainly Canva. If you weren’t aware, Educators can get a free account on Canva with some awesome premium features.

Alright, back to my dining room. This week, I decided to tackle the light fixture since I was going to be in the city and could do some shopping!

Check out my video below to see the process! 

So, how was I able to create such a masterful video, you ask?

  1. I signed up for an Educator account on Canva and logged in.
  2. Under the title, “What Will You Design Today?” I chose Videos
  3. I chose a template that looked interesting
  4. I edited the text on the first slide
    1. I appreciated that this had slides because it was sort of familiar to a PowerPoint.
  5. I played around with the “Elements” tab. In here you can add:
    1. Shapes, graphics, photos, frames, videos, and music. As you can see, I pretty much used everything.
  6. Using the “Uploads” tab you can:
    1. Insert your own pictures, and add recordings of yourself.
  7. I also fiddled around with the timing of my slides, the transitions, and animating graphics I used.

Once I had created my video, I clicked the “Share” button in the top right corner. I chose “download” and saved it as an MP4.

Then, I went onto my YouTube page and created a new video by uploading my MP4 file. Here’s a link to a video showing you how to create an unlisted video if you’re unsure!

My students love using Canva, but this was my first attempt. Overall, I found it relatively easy to use, although I’ve seen the videos my students have created, and I know that I’m missing a lot of the features that they have. If you or your students want to create videos, I would definitely recommend trying this program!

Most importantly, how can Canva be used with the SAMR model?

  • Substitution- this program can be used to create digital formats of posters, worksheets, or even your entire lesson.
  • Augmentation-you can add multimedia elements to your creations such as images, videos, interactive links, transitions, etc.
  • Modification- students can create their own interactive projects on Canva, even collaborating on these projects with peers (use the free education profile and you can assign students). I might use this for interactive timelines, digital storytelling, creating and filming plays, etc.
  • Redefinition-Canva allows you to format projects for all sorts of purposes. You can create posts or videos for Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, etc. This allows students to design projects for a variety of purposes that are easily shared both in class, as well as worldwide. The video I made could even be converted by Canva (using its new Magic ‘AI” feature) into a blog post!

Are there any other cool programs out there that we have free access to as educators?